This thread cracks me up. Through the years I've been listening to many genres. I like a lot of stuff. I've mostly fallen into the dead, phish, Zappa and similar stuff. But my wife thinks I'm still a closet metal lover. I watch "that metal show" usually when noone is around. I always, while flipping through, stop on a concert of something hard rock or metal, and leave it on, much against her requests...my pandoro stations do include system of a down, tool, maybe van halen amongst others in the genre.

Wintersun - Time, I. I'm not enamored with Wintersun as everyone else seems to be, but this one wasn't bad. Very epic Viking metal, but some of the songwriting falls a bit flat for me.

The Sword - Apocryphon. Kratz would be proud. These guys have always been hit or miss with me, but this one is mostly hit. I still think all their songs start to sound the same after a while, but it's still got a great 70's stoner metal vibe to it.

Carnival In Coal - Collection Prestige. This bat-shit insane album was best described as "Mr. Bungle by way of Morbid Angel". It's got Bungle/Dog Fashion Disco/Pin Up Went Down-style bizzareness, but with a much harder edge overall.

One final bit of bad-assery for October comes courtesy of Beastwars. Their self-titled debut is absolutely riveting. It's Mastodon meets The Melvins mixed with The Sword by way of Kyuss, with an otherworldly voice leading the charge. This album is seriously just amazing, you can stream (or buy) the whole thing here.

That new Sword is okay... it doesn't have any outright stinkers like Warp Riders did, but it doesn't have any really great songs either... I agree that the songs are sort of indistinct on it and sitting here right now, I can only think of how one song goes... that's not a good sign. The first two records are still so, so good though... I dunno, this might grow on me. I got the picture disc vinyl, and it certainly *looks* cool.

This Beastwars band actually has some potential... I don't hear Mastodon in there though. Some Sword, for sure... some Neurosis... with some Sisters of Mercy on top.

Making music for a living is a privilege, not a right. If you value that privilege, you may want to re-evaluate what youíre doing before itís too late. Coupled with your recent off-stage antics, Kings & Thieves is career suicide.

November was a very good metal month. Best to worst. (for some reason, the site is giving me an SQL error when I try to include the cover images. Will keep trying to include those, as some of them are really good this month)

Aquilus - Griseus: A very strong contender for album of the year. It shifts from brutal to absolutely beautiful effortlessly, often within the same stanza. It's one of those albums that really needs to be listened to in one sitting, as the musical story it weaves is tremendous. You can stream the whole thing here

Acyl - Algebra: A fascinating combination of middle-eastern tinged tribal with technical death metal. Probably not everyone's thing, but I thought it was fantastic.

Aeternam - Moongod: Incredibly epic symphonic melodeth with Sumerian themes. It's what Nile wishes their last album could have been.

Death - Spiritual Healing (remastered): Rounding out my Death collection. Not as strong as Human, but still very solid.

Stolen Babies - Naught. I'll be seeing these guys open up for Turisas next month, figured I should know what I'm in for. Crazy avant-garde metal in the Dog Fashion Disco/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum/Mr. Bungle vein.

Also picked up a Christmas/Winter themed album of symphonic atmospheric tunes from Nox Arcana called Winter's Majesty. It's not metal, per se, but certainly has some gothic/metal elements that add to the overall epic feel.

Because I'm sure everyone is just dying to know, here's my personal Top 10 (mostly metal) albums for 2012:

10. Pallbearer - Sorrow & Extinction: A wonderful slice of doom metal that hearkens back to Black Sabbath's glory days. 9. Dead Can Dance - Anastasis: Simply a beautiful album from start to finish. While Lisa's songs aren't quite as strong, Brendan Perry's voice is absolutely mesmerizing.8. Beastwars - Beastwars: Sludge-y, doom-y, stoner-y with a ton of hooks. Maybe it's just me, but I'm fascinated by Matt Hyde's raw, powerful delivery.7. Aeternam - Moongod: Epic melodic death metal done damn near to perfection. The Sumerian themes were unique, but didn't take focus away from the strong songwriting and fantastic orchestration.6. Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine: A howling storm of bleak chaos that is barely held in check. Most of the songs feel like they could explode into madness any moment, but the shrieking vocals hold everything together beautifully.5. Grave - Endless Procession of Souls: Straight up death metal without a single punch pulled. This shit will tear your face off then come back for seconds.4. Woods of Ypres - Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light: It's tough to separate this album from the tragedy around it's release (lead singer David Gold was killed shortly after release), but when you know the sad circumstances, Woods V becomes an incredibly eerie listen. I never thought much of Woods of Ypres, but they went out on an absolute high note with probably the most powerful album I heard this year. 3. Celldweller - Wish Upon a Blackstar: Let's face it, Klayton has an incredible gift for writing a damn catchy tune. I've probably listened to WUaB more than anything else this year, just because there are so many memorable hooks. It's not metal by any stretch, but has an energy and furious-ness that most bands simply lack.2. Aquilus - Griseus: This one-man project came out of nowhere and completely blew me away. It's technically classified as atmospheric metal, I suppose, but is honestly like nothing I've ever heard. Sweeping orchestrations give way to brutal blastbeats, quiet near-lullabies suddenly explode into shrieks of anguish...this honestly has to be heard to be believed (which you can do for free here). This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a stunning example of creativity, passion, and talent.1. Sigh - In Somnium: Nothing came close, really. This album is brilliant insanity. It's the soundtrack for a nightmare. It's what Satan spins when he wants to get laid. It throws every single musical genre into a blender and spits out something that no one can even begin to duplicate.

It's a pretty niche group of bands, but a few of them (Dead Can Dance, Grave, Sigh) have been recording for 20+ years. Celldweller (15), Nachtmystium (12), Agalloch (15), Aeon (12), and Woods of Ypres (10) have been around for a while as well.

Doubt I'll get the chance to pick up anything else this week, so here's January.

Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Light. Tough one to judge on it's own merits given the tragedy that surrounded it. Even without singer David Gold's death, this is still an incredibly powerful, depressing, haunting piece of work. Very reminiscent of Type O (in all the best ways), both in musical style and lyrical content.

Voivod - Target Earth. I've actually never been a big Voivod fan, but had seen some good reviews on this one. Is got their trademark weirdness, but the songs are actually catchy this time around instead of just...grating.

Niburta - Screams from the East. Folksy metal that is sung in both English and Macedonian. 3-4 really damn good songs, but the rest of the album falls somewhat flat. Definitely unique though, combining folk, funk, jazz, and black metal. Great cover art too.

Mechina - Empyrean. A spacey, metal version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was absolutely gaga over their first album, but this one falls short mainly due to some rather shoddy production values. Tough to fault them though, since they don't have a label and are doing it all themselves. The songwriting is pretty solid (these dudes obviously have some chops), I just can't help but feel like the album just never really comes together like it should.

Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance. Pretty generic death metal. Gave it a couple spins and couldn't get very excited about it.

Combichrist - No Redemption. This is apparently the soundtrack to DMC. I'm typically a sucker for industrial metal, but this just isn't very good.